Title: Secrecy
Word Count: 268
Prompt: Secrets
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Uncovering secrets is what Sherlock does.
Author's Note: Again, thankyou to all the amazing reviewers. You make my day every time I see that the number has gone up. Okay so, the secret John has in this is open to interpretation, but I'd love to know what you think it should/would/could be.
Secrecy.
Everyone has secrets. It's a fact of life. What the secrets are, well, that varies from person to person, but the general concept is spread across humanity. Everyone has skeletons in the closet. Whether it's a teenager cheating on a science test, a husband with a secret lover ten miles away, or a body buried deep in the middle of the forests, everyone has them.
Sherlock lives off of these secrets. These mysteries that people cover up and put out of their mind. He thrives from them, pulsing and bubbling until he doesn't even seem human at all anymore, seems so much more because no-one human could have figured it out like that. He finds that tell, that little thing that gives the person away – whether in their face, their actions or their houses – and digs until it all comes to light. The facts are there, Sherlock reasons, anyone could see them. But of course, they couldn't. Because no-one's him.
Another thing about Secrets. People don't take too kindly to them being aired.
So, after having found this out repeatedly throughout his life and repelling people rather effectively by revealing all to their loved ones, he's faced with an odd dilemma when he catches John Watson's eyes slide away one too many times while they speak, or he sees John's hands ball up from the corner of his eyes.
Everyone has secrets, and John Watson is no different. But John is the only one whose privacy Sherlock respects. Not for altruistic purposes, you realise, but because he can't stand the thought of driving away John, too.